Western Digital Black2 Dual Drive Review - Test Setup

Test Setup

To get a good idea of SSD performance, both out of the box and following extended use, we've adapted our TRIM testing methods from previous SSD reviews. Drives are now first tested in a 'clean' new state, having been reset to factory performance using HDDerase.

To simulate a protracted heavy workload, we then disable TRIM and copy the entire 100GB contents of the C drive over to the SSD numerous times, filling the drive. These files include operating system files, multiple game installs, MP3s and larger video files – the typical contents of a modern hard disk.

We then re-enable TRIM, with the drive filled from the last write, and clear the drive with a standard Windows Delete command, followed by emptying of the recycle bin to ensure the TRIM command has been triggered. The drive is then left for ten minutes, to ensure the TRIM command and any garbage collection algorithms have been completed, before being retested using our suite of benchmarks.

For the HDD side of the Western Digital Black2 we simply ran the same tests as for the SSD but without the pre-writing process.

Common Components

Intel Core i5 3570K (operating at 4.2GHz – 42 x 100MHz)

Asus Maximus V Extreme motherboard

2 x 4GB Corsair 2,400MHz DDR3 memory

AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB (Catalyst 13.4)

Lepa G1600 1600W PSU

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Intel RST AHCI driver (iastor.sys)

TRIM is confirmed as running by using the command line and entering fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify - a response of disabledeletenotify = 0 indicates that TRIM is active.

We also make use of the excellent SSD Tweaker from elpamsoft to disable Windows services such as Superfetch, Hibernation, System Restore and large system cache, in order to minimise their service's impact on drive performance.